SIDN and .nl registrars took 4340 fraudulent web stores offline last year

In 2019, SIDN, in collaboration with .nl registrars, took 4,340 fraudulent web shops offline. Much of this was discovered with a self-learning tool from SIDN Labs. According to the foundation, this tool now has a certainty percentage of 79.3 percent.

Webshops identified as fake or fraudulent by SIDN’s tool are then manually checked by the foundation’s support department. Of the sites flagged by the tool between September and December, 79.3 percent were found to actually lead to a rogue site.

Last year, SIDN and .nl registrars took a total of 4,340 fake web shops offline. According to the foundation, in a large part of the cases this was done with the help of the tool. These are sites that do not deliver products, or sell fake items without being transparent about it. When a fraudulent online store is identified, the registrar is informed and asked to take the site offline. At sites where information about the domain name holder is missing or incorrect, SIDN may disconnect the name servers.

The tool that SIDN has been using since 2018 to detect fake webshops looks, among other things, at the time of domain registration and the e-mail address used. According to the foundation, the characteristics are constantly adjusted based on new insights and due to the self-learning nature of the tool. SIDN provides more details about how the tool works in a blog and in a scientific publication.